Studies in Scottish Literature Volume 33 | Issue 1 Article 15 2004 "Never Met-and Never Parted": The urC ious Case of Burns and Boswell David W. Purdie Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/ssl Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Purdie, David W. (2004) ""Never Met-and Never Parted": The urC ious Case of Burns and Boswell," Studies in Scottish Literature: Vol. 33: Iss. 1. Available at: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/ssl/vol33/iss1/15 This Article is brought to you by the Scottish Literature Collections at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Studies in Scottish Literature by an authorized editor of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. David W Purdie "Never Met-and Never Parted": The Curious Case of Bums and Boswell Over two hundred years ago--in May 1791-there were published in the city of London the greatest single works of two of Scotland's literary giants her national poet and her greatest biographer. Two men of Ayrshire who never met, spoke or corresponded had produced, like two rapid thunderclaps, Tam 0' Shanter-A Tale, which appeared in Francis Grose's Antiquities of Scotland, followed a few weeks later by The Lift ofSamuel Johnson, LL.D. Some time ago I was asked to give a paper to the Boswell Society of Auchinleck on the subject of the physical and mental ailments of that remark able biographer, advocate and laird, James Boswell. It was while assembling material on the rather prosaic problems of his ingrowing toenails and skin af flictions, together with his more serious-and much more interesting-ma larial attacks, manic-depression and (nineteen) bouts of gonorrhea, that I began to notice with increasing interest, the personality traits, interests and personal friendships which he shared with his contemporary, Bums.